Nonwoven manufacturer Nan Liu Enterprise Co Ltd (南六) yesterday said it expected its capacity to produce spunlace nonwovens would increase 60 percent to 3,800 tonnes per month by the end of this year, making it the top provider across the Taiwan Strait.
Spunlace nonwoven is a major raw material used to make surgical gowns, drapes and wipes used in many industries.
Sales of spunlace nonwoven products accounted for 56 percent of Nan Liu’s total revenue, with its major markets in Asia.
Because of the technological know-how and high capital investment required for firms to enter the market, only Dupont and Nan Liu have the ability to produce medical-grade spunlace nonwovens.
Additionally, only Dupont, Polymer Group Inc, Nan Liu and some Chinese firms are able to produce spunlace nonwovens for industrial use, Nan Liu’s commercial director said at a pre-initial public offering (IPO) conference for investors yesterday.
The company, which is scheduled to move the trading of its shares to the Taiwan Stock Exchange early next month from the Emerging Stock Market, has tentatively set an IPO price of NT$50 a share.
It plans to raise NT$405 million (US$13.5 million) from the IPO by issuing 8.1 million new shares.
Nan Liu reported revenue of NT$971.89 million from January through last month, up 16.59 percent from NT$833.62 million a year ago, which the company attributed to new product launches.
It did not provide comparative numbers for the fourth quarter last year.
Last year, Nan Liu reported net profit of NT$197 million, up 41.26 percent from NT$139.46 million in 2011.
Nan Liu’s shares closed flat at NT$67.5 on the Emerging Stock Market yesterday.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS